Ulysse Hottier from Allopass: "Our plans are to cover new countries..."

Allopass system specializing in micro and m-payment is one of the most recognizable brands on the world market and doubtlessly is one of the leaders of the European one. Allopass is not widely covered in mass media but still is very popular and this is a real sign of quality which does not need any promotion. This time we decided not to lose time for searching the information on this payment system but to ask all the questions of interest directly from the Account Manager of Allopass Company and Group Hi-Media, Mr. Ulysse Hottier in an exclusive interview for ECJ.

Aynny: Good morning dear Mr. Hottier. I’m very glad to greet you on behalf of our editorial staff and of course on behalf of our dear readers.

Ulysse Hottier: Hello…

Aynny: What can you say about the history of your paysys? What are the exact dates? It is very hard to find the details…

Ulysse Hottier: Allopass has its origin in Eurovox, which was incorporated in 1993, and has been delivering premium phone services to various business (hotline, catalogue sale, etc.). Then Eurovox created a subsidiary, Frog Planete, which created and published Allopass. This was in 2001, and Allopass was, to my knowledge, the first phone-based online payment system provider. SMS payment came later, as well as credit card payment.

In 2006, both Eurovox and Allopass were bought over by Hi-Media, Europe's third biggest online marketing group. This made it possible to create synergies between the different poles of the group (micropayment, direct marketing, online advertising).

Ulysse Hottier: The need for phone-based micropayment was visible in France, eversince the very first days of the Internet. Indeed, people would feel reluctant about paying by credit card online, for fear their confidential details would be collected and used in a fraudulent way. Many TV talk shows and documentaries stressed that possibility, and the whole web had a flavor of risk, as far as payment was concerned. So someone in Eurovox, an IT expert, had the idea to create an online payment gateway relying on phone, instead of credit card. Anonymous, with no risk of undesired rebill or hidden fees, the idea was that it would fill the gap between online business and customer's reluctance. It did, and actually helped shape the market.

As the system is ultimately assured by phone companies, Allopass has to make do with the tolls proposed by them, which are low. This is one of the reasons why it is "micro" payment. The other reason was to adress a growing amount of sites, selling digital contents, which by definition are small added value content, and can't be sold a high price.

Ulysse Hottier: Other services are mainly affiliation, referal, technical help for integration, customer support for end-users. All of them are usefull, which is why we sustain them (smile)

Affiliation allows webmasters to "pool" their audience, and share the profits. Referal adds up profits by refering other webmasters to our service, and make them sign up with us. Customer support is what made Allopass a leader, as a solid business relies upon the end-user.

Ulysse Hottier: Allopass is always extending the cover of its service, and we reach new countries every year. This year the focus was Latin America, and Middle East countries should follow by late 2008 or a bit later.

Africa experiences an amazing growth for all mobile-related products and services. Yet, the access to the Internet is trailing behind ; we don't receive many emails from African web-users asking for Allopass to be implemented in their country, and the traffic analysis of our prospective clients (sites) doesn't show a significant gap in the market over there yet. This is something we keep an eye on though, as Africa will sure jump in the train soon.

Ulysse Hottier: Allopass is Europe's market leader, with 6,000,000 transactions, and still expanding.

Aynny: Who do you think are your main rivals?

Aynny: What about the market of the USA? Isn't it difficult to work here?

Ulysse Hottier: There is an uptrend as far as mobile payment is concerned, in many online business fields, such as online gaming, and more and more American publishers show a growing interest in phone-based micropayment.

Yet, the market in the USA is clearly not as profitable as Europe or Latin America as of now. Credit card payment is really in the habits over there.

Furthermore, there is still a debate about how profitable micropayment might be. Contrarily to Europe, where this debate was settled a while ago, by proving it IS profitable, the USA has not come to this conclusion yet, and many site owners just aren't aware yet that it is possible to unlock very significant revenue stream from small transactions. But this market will develop, as the mobile is taking over everywhere, and is much more user-friendly than credit card. Some of our American partners only use Allopass for their European market, but are astonished by the result, and now think of also proposing Allopass to their American customers.

Aynny: Not so long ago Hi-Media has acquired Mobile Trend, has anything changed? What new opportunities can be gained with this purchase?

Ulysse Hottier: Mobile trend is an excellent strategic purchase. It has been a partner for a long time, and this acquisition actually makes our collaboration more effective. The increase in volume, for instance, allows for scale economy, and ultimately provides a more profitable business for our partners. Technical issues are dealt with more quickly too, which is what end-users expect from us. All in all, this strengthens our leader position.

Ulysse Hottier: Like in any business, a certain percentage of customers expect more from us than the service we provide. Problems they might run into include issues with the site they paid for, telephone setting, access code mistyping, and various issues we try and help them to solve. We take this very seriously because we build our position on end-user satisfaction.